Infosys' turnaround man Vishal Sikka gets to stay as CEO till 2021

New Delhi: Country's second largest IT firm Infosys has extended the tenure of its chief Vishal Sikka by nearly two years till March 2021, saying his initiatives have helped the company move towards reclaiming its industry leadership position.

Infosys' CEO Vishal Sikka

Under Sikka, who took over as the CEO and Managing Director in August 2014, the company is now posting strong growth numbers for the last few quarters.

"The company's nomination and renumeration committee and board recognised the outstanding initiatives taken by Vishal Sikka towards restoring the company to industry leadership, which have already begun to show results," Infosys said in a BSE filing.

It added that the management, under Sikka's leadership, has drawn up goals for revenue, margins and people productivity for FY 2020-2021, which is expected to be progressively achieved in the next five years.

"The board believes that Sikka's leadership will be essential to achieve these goals. Hence the Board recommends that Sikka's present contract of employment be replaced with a new contract that is fully aligned to the period and goals, as well as to shareholder value creation," it said.

The board has reduced the term of his existing contract to December 31, 2016 from June 13, 2019. Also, Infosys will execute a new executive employment agreement with Sikka for his re-appointment as the MD and CEO with effect from April 1, 2016 until March 31, 2021 to reflect certain changes in his compensation.

Once an industry bellwether, Infosys lost out to rivals like Tata Consultancy Services and HCL Technologies in terms of growth. Besides, it faced other issues like attrition and exodus of senior-level executives.

Sikka was brought in to turnaround the company, a strategy that has worked well for the Bengaluru-based company. Apart from posting stellar growth in the last few quarters, Infosys has also set up an aspirational goal of USD 20 billion in topline by 2020.

Earlier this year, the $9.2-billion IT firm raised its revenue outlook to 12.8-13.2 percent in constant currency for 2015-16, from the earlier target of 10-12 percent growth. Infosys also aims to increase revenue per Full-time Equivalent (employee) to $80,000 by deploying automation and innovation in existing businesses, with a goal of generating at least 30 percent productivity improvements in existing service lines from these solutions, thereby making the company more competitive to win larger deals.

New services like Design Thinking, solutions in artificial intelligence and intellectual property-led businesses are expected to contribute at least 10 percent of Infosys' revenue in the coming years.

Besides, the company has also been aggressively investing in startups working on new technology areas under Sikka's leadership.